After Bitter Campaign, Vishnu Manchu Defeats Prakash Raj to Become MAA President

Telugu actor Vishnu Manchu has defeated Prakash Raj to become the next president of the Movies Artistes Association (MAA). The two film stars were involved in a bitter poll campaign, hyped almost on the scale of an assembly election.

The voting was conducted on Sunday, while the counting began this morning. Vishnu Manchu’s panel also bagged four posts comprising vice-president Madala Ravi, general secretary Y. Raghubabu, joint secretary Gautam Raju and treasurer M. Siva Balaji, reported The Hindu. Prakash Raj’s panel member Srikanth defeated Babu Mohan to become executive vice-president.

Other winners from Prakash Raj’s panel included Banerjee, who won the second vice-president post and Uttej who will be a joint secretary in MAA. Eleven executive committee members of Prakash Raj’s panel have also won. There are a total of 18 EC members in MAA. The other seven EC members are expected to be from Vishnu Manchu’s panel.

After the win, Vishnu Manchu took to Twitter to thank the film fraternity for electing him president. “I am humbled by the love and support my film fraternity has shown to me. Before I say anything more on the MAA election; the counting for the EC Members, Joint Secretary and one of the Vice President posts start at 11 am today. Will talk after that,” the 39-year-old said.

https://twitter.com/iVishnuManchu/status/1447394898357862404?s=20

While campaigning, Vishnu Manchu and Prakash Raj exchanged frequent barbs. Prakash Raj accused Vishnu Manchu and his family, especially father Mohan Babu, of exploiting the postal ballot system and using unfair means to win MAA elections. Vishnu Manchu retorted with a warning to Prakash Raj to not drag his family into petty politics.

Meanwhile, some of the big Telugu stars like Mahesh Babu, Jr N.T.R., Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Venkatesh, Naga Chaitanya, Allu Arjun, Ravi Teja, Vijay Devarakonda, Rakulpreet Singh, Ileana D’Cruz, Trisha and Hansika Motwani skipped voting.

Among the stars who turned up for voting were Chiranjeevi, Pawan Kalyan, Nandamuri Balakrishna, Jayaprada and others. Genelia Deshmukh flew from Mumbai to cast her vote.

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